


Coming Home

by NeverAndAlways



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Family, Family Dynamics, Family Fluff, Gen, Growing Up, M/M, Newt is a Dork, Not Beta Read, Parenthood, Slice of Life, parents Newton and Hermann
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 01:55:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3960055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverAndAlways/pseuds/NeverAndAlways
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newt and Hermann's grown daughter comes back from her first semester at college, and finds that things are different than she remembers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn't explicitly written as mpreg/post-mpreg; she could be adopted, or biologically theirs. Interpret it whichever way you like.

A young woman walks into the Shatterdome. She's small and sort of plump, but her eyes are sharp and her features severe enough that you'd think twice about calling her that. She's wearing dark jeans, lace-up boots, and a baggy sweater, and the messenger bag over her shoulder is well-worn and faded. She walks with purpose.

The Shatterdome is built in layers. The outer parts are relatively unsecured and full of people coming and going; the inner layers, accessable only through a series of airlock-type doors, are guarded and require varying levels of authorization to get in. At the first set of doors, the young woman pulls an ID card from her pocket before the security guard even says a word. He quickly waves her through. Her footsteps echo; there aren't many people in this part of the Shatterdome. This is the older section, built just after the first Kaiju attack some 25 years ago. A few of the old jaegers still sit in the hangar like huge rusty monuments, the walls around them black with engine grease. It still smells like jet fuel. She clangs over the catwalk between them and disappears around a corner. This place is a labyrinth. But the way she navigates the endless halls, pulling her long, raspberry-red hair into a bun as she goes, suggests that she's been doing it for years. Her destination is a room toward the center of the building that looks abandoned at first glace. The doors, which are solid steel and look like they belong on a bank vault, are cracked and chipped and stained all to hell. She heaves one side open and lets herself in.

Inside is a laboratory, like the kind you might see in a sci-fi movie. There's a holo-computer by the door, tables spread with papers and equipment and dissecting trays, a chalkboard towering against the far wall, and specimen tanks humming in the corner. And it's quiet; the thick walls mute all the outside noise. She drops her bag on a table.

"Hello? Anybody home?" she calls. Her voice bounces back to her, but there's no response. Oh well, she can wait. She picks up a fallen stack of papers from the floor. It's part of a scientific journal: something about waveform calculus. Yikes. Moving on...the chalkboard is absolutely covered with formulas and equations (save for one corner, which seems to have been the site of an argument- some of the equations are scribbled out, some are smudged, and the word NO is written in big block letters on the side); she squints at them in passing, but that's not what interests her. The specimen tanks are what really caught her eye. All but one are empty, and the occupied one contains either a fetal kaiju, or a damn good replica of one. It looks a bit like the Leatherback kaiju in miniature, all curled up with its eight eyes shut. It's...kind of cute, actually. She's just moving in for a closer look when she hears the door slide open. Shuffling footsteps and the 'tap, tap' of a cane follow, then pause. A voice clears its throat pointedly.

"Madam, this area is classified." says the voice. It's a reedy, British-sounding voice, the kind that could easily belong in a library or university. It makes an impatient little noise when she doesn't turn around. "Madam," it says again, shuffling closer, "this is a laboratory. Civilians are not authorized to be here. I must ask you to leave at once, or I will contact security."

Now the voice is right behind her. She turns to look over her shoulder. "Really, Doctor Gottlieb? You'd call security on your own kid?" she grins.

The man's eyes widen. "Anthea...?"

"Hi, Vati." still grinning, she turns around and pulls him into a hug before he can object.

"Anthea, what are you doing here? I thought you were still in Tokyo!" Hermann breathes once she releases him.

"Just got back this morning; I wanted to surprise you."

"Well, consider me surprised." Hermann finally cracks a smile of his own. "It's good to see you, meine liebe."

"You too."

"You've, ah...you've dyed your hair."

"Yeah! You like it?" Anthea turns in a little proud circle. Hermann shakes his head fondly.

"It suits you. You are definitely your father's daughter."

"Yeah, minus the tattoos." she casts a glance around at the lab. "By the way, I love what you've done with the place." she smirks.

Hermann rolls his eyes. "Your father is nothing if not persistent. I've almost given up trying to confine his experiments to one side of the laboratory."

"Well, don't let him hear you, he'll think he's won."

Hermann huffs a short laugh. "Never."

"Speaking of whom...where is he?"

"Cataloguing his specimens." Hermann gestures with his cane. "Something has possessed him to inventory his entire collection, he's been in there all day."

"Oh. Should I not-?"

"No, no. I think he could use the interruption." Hermann beckons to his daughter and begins to shuffle away. "Come on."

Anthea follows him out of the lab, walking slowly to keep pace. The sound of his cane mixes with his footsteps and creates an odd tempo. Shuffle, click, shuffle. Shuffle, click, shuffle. Every so often he has to stop and hoist his left leg forward when it refuses to move. But when he sees Anthea watching him, he waves away her concern. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I'm alright." he says gruffly. Anthea sighs but doesn't argue. Instead she offers her arm; after a moment's hesitation, Hermann takes it. "I'm 62." he continues as they shuffle along. "And no one gets sharper with age, liebste."

Eventually they reach the storeroom. The door is ajar, and there are mutterings and busy sounds coming from inside. Hermann hooks it open with the end of his cane, detaches himself from Anthea, and shuffles in. It looks like a museum archive; shelves of drawers stretch almost to the ceiling all around the room. It's definitely grown since she last visited, and she tries not to think about how that might have happened. Especially if Hannibal Chau is still in business. Which he probably is.

Hermann stops in the middle of the room and looks around. There are stacks of boxes everywhere. " **Newton**!!" he bellows up at the shelves. "Where are you?"

"Here!" a voice yells back. "What d'you want?"

Anthea tries not to laugh. This has been her parents' way of communicating as long as she can remember. She's been so looking forward to coming back.

"Come down, I need to talk to you!!"

There's the sound of a box being dropped. "Uh...why?"

Hermann jerks his head toward the sound of Newt's voice and winks at Anthea. She grins.

"Why don't you come down and find out?" she yells. The busy sounds abruptly stop.

"...Hermann, who is that...?"

"Come and see."

Now there's the sound of wheels. A library ladder rolls into view from one row of shelves, with Newton Geizsler perched at the top. He gapes. "Annie??"

Anthea grins up at him. "Hi dad."

"Annie, oh my god! What are you doing here??" Newt rolls the ladder to the end of the shelf.

"Newton, don't you dare jump-" Hermann growls, but of course Newt does just that. Even at 50-something, he has little regard for his own safety. He staggers when he hits the ground, then dashes over to his daughter for a hug.

"Oh man it's so good to see you, I had no idea you'd be here, I thought you were still at school, how are you??" the words all tumble out in one breath. "And you dyed your hair, oh my god! It looks great, look at you-"

"Newton. Slow down." Hermann gently taps his husband's leg with his cane.

"Sorry Herms, I just-" he turns back to Anthea. "God, it's good to see you. My big college girl." he looks so proud.

Anthea just smiles, a little bowled over by this enthusiastic greeting. Even though she's 21 years old and a couple inches taller than her dad, he's still fussing over her.

"Have you eaten? C'mon, I'll get you something from the mess hall." Newt turns and bustles out of the room. His husband and daughter both roll their eyes; the man has the energy of a locomotive.

-

"So. Tell me all about it."

They're seated in the mess hall, conversations and people swirling around them. Hermann got just a cup of tea, Anthea got a sandwich, and Newt got a bowl of soup which he hasn't touched at all. Instead he's leaning his elbows on the table and looking expectantly at his daughter.

"About what?" she says through a mouthful of sandwich.

"School! Your first semester at college! What was it like?"

Anthea shrugs. "You've been to college, dad. You know what it's like."

"Well yeah, but that was-" Newt pauses to count on his fingers for a moment. His lips move soundlessly. "-that was a long time ago. I wanna hear what it's been like for you."

Hermann looks up from his tea and mutters a phrase in German to his husband. Newt returns it. Anthea sighs. They've done this since she was little, whenever they didn't want her to know what they were saying.

"I'm right here, y'know."

Two pairs of eyes look at her, then back at each other. "See?" says Newt irritably. "My point exactly."

"My apologies. Continue, Anthea."

She takes a deep breath, but doesn't get much farther than "um" before she's interrupted by a short and wiry someone sweeping up to their table and ruffling her hair.

"Now there's a face I haven't seen in a while. Hey, kiddo!"

"Hi, Tendo."

"School finally let you go so you came back to see your folks, huh?"

"Uh, yeah." Anthea tries to make her hair lay flat, and fails. Of all the people she looked forward to seeing, Tendo isn't one of them. She idolized him as a kid; can't remember why now.

"Love the hair, by the way."

"Thanks."

"So have you seen the Kaidanovskys yet? Bet they'd love to see you."

"No, she hasn't." Hermann chimes in. His voice is quiet, but it carries over the mess hall chatter. "She also has not seen her parents for several months."

Tendo looks from Hermann to Newt to Anthea. He takes a step back. "Hey, sorry man, I didn't mean to intrude-"

"That's alright. We will see you later, Tendo."

This seems to get the message across. With a little respectful bow, Tendo steps back and disappears into the crowd. Anthea takes another bite of sandwich.

"Has he always been that annoying...?" she asks after a moment. Newt snorts into his soup.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Newton..." Hermann sighs.

"What? It's the truth."

"Be that as it may...I believe Anthea was speaking."

Anthea takes another bite before she continues. "College is...it's been fun. Lots of math-" Hermann smiles proudly at this "-lots of science and-"

"Like what? Bio, chem, physics?"

" **Newton**...!" Hermann pointedly sets down his mug of tea.

"What??"

"Beruhige dich, let her talk."

"I am calm, dude! I just-"

"You are rarely calm. Let her at least get a full sentence out before you interrupt."

"Well, what about you? You're interrupting all over the place."

"That is beside the point."

"Is it? You always do this-"

"Newton, liebste, please do not do this now. Anthea has just arrived, she did not come here to see us argue."

"Who's arguing? I'm just trying to have a conversation with my daughter, I dunno about you."

Anthea puts down her sandwich. She's had enough. Her parents' squabbling has never worried her at all- she knows they love each other, and her -and she's always been able to tune it out. Until now. She stands up, slinging her messenger bag over her shoulder.

"I'm, uh...I'm gonna go find the bathroom. I'll be right back." maybe. She walks away before they can say anything.

The mess hall is packed; she weaves her way through gaggles of engineers and crowds of researchers to reach the door. Once out, she goes straight down the hall and keeps going until she can't hear the chatter anymore. Then she stops, puts down her bag, and sits. Good god...she's only been away for a few months, how can everything have changed so much? She grew up in the Shatterdome. It's never seemed noisy or as crowded and chaotic as it does now. Even her dads are different, and Tendo. She used to think Tendo was hilarious; he was sort of the weird uncle that everyone likes. Now he's just obnoxious. And her parents: she was so looking forward to seeing them, to spending time at home, and now...she's not sure if she wants to.

"Miss Gottlieb?"

A voice brings her out of her thoughts. She looks up; black boots, dark jeans, a practical windbreaker, blue-and-black hair... "Marshal Mori."

"What are you doing out here alone? I thought you were here to see your parents."

Anthea doesn't even ask how Mako knew she was here. She's the Marshal, it's her job to know. What **is** she doing, though? Hiding? Avoiding her parents? She twists and un-twists a runaway strand of hair and doesn't answer. Mako makes a thoughtful noise.

"May I?" she sits down beside Anthea, and they're both quiet for a moment.

"How's, uh...how's Emi?" Anthea says to fill the silence.

Mako smiles. "She is training to be a Ranger like her father...she has been away for a long time, too."

"...Yeah."

"You do not seem very happy to be home." Mako continues. "If I had been away for so long, I think I would look forward to coming back." she gives Anthea that knowing look that all parents seem to have.

"That's the thing. I was looking forward to it."

"But...?"

"I dunno. Everything's different."

"Different how?"

A group of engineers walks by, fresh from the hangar; they wait for them to pass. "It just IS. It's too noisy and crowded now, and Tendo's just annoying and Dad and Vati won't stop arguing..." she sighs. "I was gonna stay for a week, but now I'm thinking I might leave tomorrow."

"No."

Anthea frowns up at the Marshal. "What do you mean, 'no'...?"

"I don't think you should leave so soon. Things aren't as different as you think."

"How do you know?" Anthea turns her gaze to her feet.

"I know because Emi has gone through this as well. And because I have."

"You...?"

Mako nods. "When I was young, I didn't want to stay and be a Ranger and fight and train all the time. I wanted to be an author. So I left."

"And let me guess: you saw the error of your ways and came back, right?"

"No. I dropped out. I couldn't do it. And when I came back, everything was different. But then I realized, nothing had really changed except for me." Anthea makes a noncommital sound and keeps staring at her shoes. Mako waits a moment for her words to sink in, then continues. "Just give it time. You will adapt again. And in the meantime, your parents have missed you. You should spend time with them while you're here."

"...'K."

"You will be fine, Anthea." Mako gives Anthea's shoulder a gentle squeeze, then stands up and is gone. Anthea sits in silence for some time after that.

-

"Dad...?"

Anthea pushes open the heavy lab door. Newton looks up from his dissection, and Hermann from his chalkboard. They look like they've had a bigger argument than usual. But when he sees Anthea, Newt's expression softens.

"Hi, sweetie." he puts down his scalpel and strips off his gloves. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. I just, uh...needed some fresh air."

"I apologize for our behavior in the mess hall earlier." says Hermann quietly. Anthea raises an eyebrow; an apology from Vati is a rare thing.

"Yeah, I told him," Newt butts in, "I said, Herms, you're gonna scare her off 'cause you're so cranky, and he said **I** was the one being cranky-"

"Dad, please don't start-"

"That is not what I said, Newton, do not twist my words. I said that you coming at her like an overexcited kaiju would-"

" **Vati** -"

"Shut up, Hermann-"

"I am simply-"

" **HEY**."

Anthea's voice echoes in the small room, startling her parents into silence. They stare at her. "Can you please not do this now?" she sighs. Newt's ears turn red; Herman looks back at his chalkboard. "I really missed you. But I'm only here for a week, and I don't wanna spend it listening to you fight. So can we start over?" to fill the awkward silence that follows, she drops her bag on the floor, opens it, and pulls out two folders. "I found some articles for both of you in the school library." she hands them to her parents. "You'd love the library, dad, there's a whole section dedicated to kaiju research." Newt's eyes light up as he skims through the pages. Hermann limps over to a chair and starts going through his own file, muttering excitedly. And in the hallway, unnoticed by all three, Mako pauses by the door and smiles.

-

The week goes by quickly. In no time at all, it seems, Anthea finds herself back on the helipad, saying her goodbyes. Vati is gruff as usual, and Dad is...well, Dad.

"...and maybe call once in a while, too."

"I'll try. Pretty sure you and Vati can survive just fine without me, though." Anthea teases.

Newt makes an exasperated noise. "You know what I mean."

"I know. I'll try, okay?" she playfully whacks him on the arm. "I'll miss you too." Newt has to stand almost on tiptoes to give his daughter a hug. And he draws out the hug as long as he can, until his husband gently pokes him with his cane.

Then it's Hermann's turn. He's not much for hugs. Instead he gives her a formal kiss on the cheek, then backs away to give her a rare smile. "Auf Wiedersehen."

"Bye, Vati."

Behind her, the pilot is hauling his own cargo into the helicopter. She gives him her luggage and climbs in after it. It's almost like going back in time, to when she first left. But this time, as the helicopter lifts off and her parents shrink to the size of ants, she realizes something. Mako was right: she's the one who's changed. Maybe home is a little different, too, but she can adapt. And she'll be back.

oOOo

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked the story, please leave a comment- I'd love to hear from you!


End file.
